I heard from two different sources that at least one busload of protesters (around 40 people) was forced to spend seven excruciating hours locked in tiny cages on a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. prison bus, denied food, water and access to bathroom facilities. Both men and women were forced to urinate in their seats. Meanwhile, the cops in charge of the bus took an extended Starbucks coffee break.

The bus that I was shoved into didn’t move for at least an hour. The whole time we listened to the screams and crying from a young woman whom the cops locked into a tiny cage at the front of the bus. She was in agony, begging and pleading for one of the policemen to loosen her plastic handcuffs. A police officer sat a couple of feet away the entire time that she screamed–but wouldn’t lift a finger.

Everyone on my bus felt her pain–literally felt it. That’s because the zip-tie handcuffs they use—like the ones you see on Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib—cut off your circulation and wedge deep through your skin, where they can do some serious nerve damage, if that’s the point. And it did seem to be the point. A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.

Most of us don’t make it a habit of getting thrown in the pokey thus most of us have no freaking clue what constitutes ‘normal’ in the local lock-up.

From the writer’s perspective these abuses are indeed horrible…but, in defense of the men with badges, there weren’t any ‘alternatives’.

Once cuffed you remain cuffed until you are either released or inserted into a ‘holding area’…which also sports a ‘communal commode’ (again, for security reasons.)

Um, while being forced to wet oneself is regrettable, imagine the logistics of having to cycle hundreds of desperate people through a ‘rest-room break’.

The ties used as ‘substitute’ handcuffs aren’t ‘reusable’…and trying to put new ones back on someone with already sore wrists is likely to be ‘challenging’ to say the least.

There’s something about pinning someone’s hands behind their back for hours that makes them a lot less ‘peaceful’.

Would it have been ‘more humane’ to seal the encampment, bring in ‘handy-huts’ and, er, ‘process’ the protesters ‘in place’? Definitely…but that would require thinking, something that’s legally prohibited in law enforcement!

Which is to point out that ‘the process’ isn’t supposed to be ‘humane’ or ‘quick and easy’ for that matter, the process is about ‘punishment’!

The ‘process-ees’ are being punished!

Don’t, er, ‘enjoy’ being humiliated? The solution is simple, don’t get busted!

The police aren’t equipped to (humanely) handle large numbers.

The ‘procedures’ they are bound to follow also weren’t intended to facilitate large numbers.

Crime is usually a rather lonely profession, even a ‘gang’ of bank robbers seldom numbers more than a half dozen.

Funny thing about technology, the money is no longer in the bank, the money is in the bank’s computer! Most banks don’t have enough cash on hand to throw a good party! A testament to how ‘credit driven’ our society has become.

While we still hear about banks being robbed, we also have a new show on TV called ‘America’s dumbest criminals.’

No irony should be lost on the fact that there will continue to be (attempted) bank robberies even after cash is outlawed! (Trick number one will be finding the bank!)

But I digress…

We can indeed be ‘thankful’ that the nation’s police departments ARE NOT equipped to handle large scale civil disobedience. What would it say about our civilization if they were?

Um, let us abandon the topic of police brutality and return to the more familiar territory of financial collapse.

Thanks to what can only be described as one of the worst cases of ‘irrational exuberance’ in recent memory, the stock markets posted their largest single week gain this week since 2008!

Which makes you wonder because the markets ‘started to tank’ in mid 2007...

Worse, the, er, ‘employment index’ posted its largest gain all year, coinciding with a nearly half a percentage point drop in the ‘national’ unemployment rate.

Yet the NYSE closed in negative territory…

Talk about your mixed messages, good citizen!

Like this message (because I’m going to ask you to ram it into reverse for a moment as we revisit our previous topic.

Your first amendment rights are only valuable on a proverbial ‘level’ playing field. Once the judiciary is corrupted the only thing ‘freedom of speech’ protects is the freedom to lie!

So, and understand that the, er, ‘police’ will be even less, er, ‘friendly’ when you do this, the time has come to defend/uphold your 2nd amendment rights.

Conversely (and just ‘opinionating’ here) it is likely that when this glove is dropped we will find a ‘good percentage’ of police ‘switching sides’.

It is time for us to stop this 1st amendment nonsense and begin the 2nd amendment, er, assault for our children’s liberty!

Liberty is freedom from ’tyranny’ (Tyranny is being bent to the will of another.)

About Me

I have just perused the media offerings for today and concluded, amazingly, that in a world that is truly falling apart, they have nothing to say!

So for today’s ‘treat’, you can read me, ‘unplugged’.

Let’s start with my humble beginnings, shall we?

No I’m not going to bore you with my tawdry upbringing because being raised poor has little to do with anything…although I doubt I’d be who I am today had I been born with anything even resembling a ‘silver spoon’ protruding from any orifice!

So yes, it is at least tangentially relevant that I was born poor and remain poor to this day.

Um, contrary to popular belief, I have never set myself on a path to ‘conquer the world’…and, unsurprisingly, might be accused of failing because I didn’t’ set my sights high enough.

But we can’t ALL conquer the world…and maybe that is my fracture because my goal always has been the ‘greatest good’.

Why is it in a world so full of bounty that only a few get to enjoy it?

And the answer comes back (quite quickly I might add:) mismanagement.

The system itself is deeply flawed and remains that way due to deep corruption!

But I preach to the choir, do I not?

Everybody knows.

So why doesn’t ‘somebody’ DO SOMETHING about it?

Have we all been so deeply indoctrinated with ‘go along to get along’ that none of us dare ‘rock the boat’ (even though it is headed over a cliff?)

Although I’d daresay we have already gone over that cliff, rocking the boat now would merely remove the only thing between you and the jagged rocks below.

As thin as that object may be,

And no, it is unlikely you will survive that sudden stop that follows every long fall.

But I digress…(and do so with such frequency that I fear few of you can follow my, er, ‘insights’ to their conclusions.)

Which is to announce that I suspect my son isn’t the only one with ADD.

Meaning he comes by his ‘honestly’.

So let’s return to the beginning (because we’re gonna end up there anyway) and try not to ‘squander the opportunity’ which the slavers among us are prepared to defend with their worthless lives.

Yes good citizen, there are those among us who support slavery so long as it is not they who are the slaves.

They will inflict a fate worse than death upon YOU if their children are spared.

Did I lose you again? Try to keep up, eh?

These ‘true believers’ form a singular barrier to a fair and equitable society. They must be eliminated OR those they follow/obey must be, er, ‘eradicated’ for subsequent generations to be free.

No ‘half measures’ here good citizen, this is not a ‘once and done’ proposition.

Which is to say vigilance is key. We may succeed in sweeping them aside (temporarily) but they will regroup and start over if we provide them with the mechanisms they need to corrupt society.

Their ‘tool of choice’ is (and always will be) ‘hard currency’. Without it, it becomes near impossible to ‘bribe’ others towards your way of thinking.

This is why you are ‘trained’ to demand money you can touch…while money itself remains an ‘idea’.

Fix this and we break the slaver’s back.

The other ‘trump card’ the slaver holds is their control of the workplace. They get to decide who ‘prospers’ and who starves.

A decidedly toxic power to have in a world where survival depends on ‘participation’.

If they don’t let you play, you can’t prosper…legally.

That is the ‘powder keg’ the unemployment situation has become.

Yet the conservatives (those who would enslave you) still preach that it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make yourself ‘USEFUL’ to the employer.

And soon SOME OF YOU may be able to ‘redeem’ yourselves by being willing to DIE for people who wouldn’t ordinarily spit on the best part of you!

Oh, you’ll be a hero for taking a bullet for them but you can almost hear them shriek ‘idiot’ as you fall to the ground, clutching your vitals!

Um, I find myself apologizing after these solo flights if only because a trip through the landscape that is my mind can be a pretty disturbing experience for those who don’t usually think along those lines.

So, in short…(not that I’m particularly comfortable with the short version of anything) A Simple Plan was designed to facilitate the ‘equality’ we need to move forward as a species.

If we don’t learn to live together, we will not survive to go forth and meet new (and hopefully more intelligent) races across the cosmos.